Colorado floods: Four dead, hundreds rescued, thousands homeless

Rivers continued to swell, roadways crumbled, and Colorado's Front Range began to dig out from the epic destruction wrought by a historic flood that has become one of the state's worst disasters.

"We're not out of the woods yet," said Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner on Friday morning -- a day that saw the skies clear but catastrophe continue.

Rivers raged, highways and local roads shut down, residents remained stranded, power failed, and officials confirmed four people had died: a boyfriend and girlfriend, both 19, in Boulder; a Jamestown man; and a man who drowned in Fountain Creek in Colorado Springs.

Boulder officials Saturday morning said 218 people are still unaccounted for, meaning they had not been in touch with relatives.

A residential neighborhood and a connecting road in Lyons, Colo., are cut in two by flood waters as flooding continues to devastate the Front Range and thousands are forced to evacuate with an unconfirmed number of structures destroyed Friday, Sept. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/John Wark)

The disaster was widespread and affected nearly everyone and everything in a swath of Colorado stretching from Pueblo to the Wyoming border -- from schoolkids and college students, whose classes were canceled, to livestock, sports games and even climbers on Longs Peak.

Two women from Maine who were stranded by weather below the 14,259-foot summit called for help, which could not reach them. They waited more than 48 hours before hiking to safety Friday.

The University of Colorado postponed Saturday's football game against Fresno State, only the third time that has happened -- the first was when President Kennedy was killed, and the second was after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

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Residents packed sand into bags Friday afternoon, preparing for the South Platte River to crest in Kersey on Saturday and in Sterling sometime Sunday. On Friday, the river carried 50 times more water than it normally does at this time of year.

"Everyone along the river is worried," Kersey town clerk Julie Piper said. "The phone is ringing off the wall. It just gets larger and larger."

Robert Kimbrough, associate director for hydrologic data with the Colorado Water Science Center, estimated the South Platte River near Kersey was running at 23,700 cubic feet per second at 5:30 p.m. Friday -- higher than the National Weather Service's predicted crest.

Thousands of people remained out of their homes. Many did not know whether they had a home any longer.

Military helicopters rescued nearly 300 people from Jamestown -- a town in Boulder County that become an island Wednesday.

The Colorado National Guard drove high-clearance trucks through the water to get people out of Lyons, which was cut off when the St. Vrain River roared into a behemoth Thursday morning, flooding the town and all exit routes.

Michael Twarogowski watched the river crest near his Lyons home around 1 a.m. Thursday. He ushered his family to the car and drove to the cemetery, one of the highest points in town, and tried to sleep as heavy rain pounded the roof.

Thursday morning, Twarogowski watched the landscape of Lyons change -- sheds and outbuildings being gobbled up by the river and shattered against trees.

Twarogowski checked on his home one last time before being evacuated Friday. It had been spared.

But not far away, the sight was far more devastating: homes surrounded by water with trees and limbs pushed up against them, a metal footbridge wiped out. Some houses were swept from their foundations.

A few miles west on U.S. 36, more than 100 stranded residents of Pinewood Springs and Big Elk Meadows frantically tried to hire private helicopters to shuttle them out of isolation. Late Friday, Air National Guard helicopters began moving people with medical needs to safety because of limited resources.

Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said his department has requested one or two more Air National Guard helicopters but needed more.

Military copters also plucked people from Big Thompson Canyon, where Smith said parts of U.S. 34 had been "washed to the bedrock."

Smith flew through the canyon in a Black Hawk helicopter, seeing washed-out roads, splintered buildings and stranded people moving around on the ground assessing the damage.

"I was shocked at the width of the Big Thompson in Loveland, but that doesn't compare to the canyon and 17 miles of roadway gone," he said. "There are still hundreds, if not thousands, of people who can't get out."

Traffic remained a mess as roads were shut down, washed away or under water -- from local roads to major highways including Interstates 25 and 70 and U.S. 85.

Dozens of Jeffco students at the Mount Evans Outdoor Lab had to hike out during a lull in the weather to a passable roadway. And 85 students from Louisville's Fireside Elementary were expected to be helicoptered out of the CalWood Education Center near Jamestown.